Kit: No. 48030
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: MPM, available from Squadron Mail Order, 1115 Crowley Dr., Carrollton, TX 75011-5010, &972-242-8663
Price: $34.98
Comments: Injection molded, 166 parts (7 resin, 24 photoetched brass, 5 photo film), decals.

Developed for armed reconnaissance missions, Fw 189s were produced for the Luftwaffe from 1940 until 1944 in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and France. Power was provided by two Argus As 410 A-1 air-cooled inverted V engines, relieving some of the production strain at Daimler-Benz and Junkers.

Underneath MPM’s attractive box top are injection-molded styrene parts with fine recessed panel lines. All plastic parts have unpolished surfaces and rough seam-line edges. Several of the cockpit parts and machine guns are cast in resin. Photoetched-brass parts include the main instrument panel, boarding ladder, and control horns.

The inside corners of the wheel wells have a rough buildup.

Clear parts are thin and crisp, but clarity can be improved by dipping them in Future acrylic floor polish. The crosses on the five-color Propagteam decal sheet were slightly out of register. Swastikas are included, but you have to build each from two pieces of decal.

The 12-page instructions include a brief history, parts map, RLM paint list, and four-view colors and markings drawings. Parts are numbered (but not named) on the assembly drawings. Detailed drawings of the pilot’s and observer’s seats, main undercarriage, and engine cowlings are provided.

A red label on the box top announces this is a kit for advanced modelers. While not generally difficult to assemble, all plastic parts must be cleaned of flash and rough mold seams.

I filed all mating surfaces flat, then test fit the wings, cowls, and tail booms to make sure panels lined up. Cut notches on the inboard front corner of each top wing panel for the gun-blast tubes before gluing the wing panels together.

I had trouble mating the tail booms to the nacelles at the trailing edge of the wings, and had to fudge the alignment of the horizontal stabilizer. The bottom wing panels matched the wing center section well, but the camber of the top panels didn’t match the center section. They required filing for dihedral and heavy clamping for shape. The lack of spars and tabs made the job difficult.

Carefully study the cockpit assembly. The control column mounts to the forward edge of the cockpit floor, not on the floor surface. The rudder pedals must be thinned down at least 50 percent to look correct. The armored bulkhead frame behind the pilot’s seat did not fit so I made one from stretched sprue. My sample’s photoetched-brass handles on the overhead console interfered with the forward crash bar when I installed the canopy.

The fuselage went together without a problem, and fit into the wing center section perfectly, but the windscreen was wider than the forward edges of the cockpit side walls. I also had to add a shim to the back of the canopy.

I painted the model first with the typical splinter camouflage scheme, then oversprayed the mottled white winter camouflage. Since I’ve had trouble with Propagteam decals in the past, I slid them off the backing paper into a puddle of water on the surface of the model to ease positioning. The decals snuggled down well, and a little Solvaset took care of silvering.

When finished, the model measures only a few scale inches short in length, but the span is OK, according to the dimensions in George Punka’s Focke-Wulf Fw 189 in Action (Squadron/Signal).

I spent 53 hours on this project. The time-consuming culprits were fit and the paint-over-paint camouflage. You should have experience with resin, tiny photoetched-brass, and photo-film parts before tackling this kit. It’s certainly a desirable subject for World War II fans, and I’m happy to add it to my collection.

– Al Jones